12/5/2023 0 Comments Nashorn modern german tankOrdered late in 1942, it entered production in January 1944. Built on the chassis of the Panther tank, it weighed 50 tons. Jagdpanther was the ultimate mount for KwK 43: fast, superbly armored, and if any war machine can be considered beautiful, a masterpiece of design. Their main armament was the long-barreled 88 mm KwK 43 L/71, mounted here in the early model turrets, later superseded by turrets with a more heavily armored slab front. Two Tiger IIs, often referred to by the Allies as King Tigers, in France. Kurt Knispel, the top-scoring tank ace of the war with 168 confirmed kills, was mortally wounded in his Tiger II on April 28, 1945, at the age of 23. Serving in 11 Wehrmacht and 3 Waffen-SS heavy Panzer battalions (45 tanks at full strength), the King Tiger first saw combat in Normandy in July 1944. By the end of the war, some 492 Tiger IIs had been delivered. The result was a vehicle weighing 77 tons underpowered, prone to steering and drivetrain failure, and too heavy for many bridges in Europe. Engineers were challenged to fit the massive gun into a rotating turret and balance it. The most famous mount for the KwK 43 was the Tiger II, or Königstiger (“King Tiger” – an unofficial nickname). They equipped several heavy antitank battalions ( Schwere Panzerjäger-Abteilungen), serving in Italy and the Eastern Front. Late in 1943 surviving vehicles were rebuilt with a bow-mounted MG34 machine gun, and given a new name: Elefant. At Kursk (July-August 1943) one battalion claimed a kill total of 320 Soviet tanks, while losing 13 Ferdinands, mostly to mines and mechanical breakdown. This proved to be a serious vulnerability. No machine gun was fitted, because it was expected that the long-range gun would only engage from positions behind the front. Mounted in an armored box, the gun had limited traverse (only 25°) and elevation. This hastily improvised (March–May 1943) design used 91 chassis built as unsuccessful competitors for the Tiger tank contract. Bundesarchiv photoĪ more heavily armored (70 tons) self-propelled 88 was the Ferdinand (named for its designer, Dr. Early versions of the Elefant suffered from a lack of a machine gun and mechanical problems. A knocked-out German Elefant somewhere in Italy, ca.
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